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Iran reminds IAEA of West’s broken promises

02 March 2010 03:14 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Iran has called on the UN nuclear watchdog to bear in mind the West’s past breaches of atomic fuel exchange deals with Tehran while reviewing Iran’s nuclear program, APA reports quoting Al Jazeera.
In a letter to the UN body, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), cited three instances on which Western countries failed to meet their commitments and provide Iran with nuclear fuel.
The letter referred to the American firm AMF, which was stopped by the US government from supplying fuel for the Tehran research reactor in 1980 despite an agreement between the two countries.
AMF did not refund the $2 million paid in advance by Iran for the nuclear fuel.
The letter also mentioned Germany’s failure to provide the fuel for the Bushehr nuclear plant.
It also points out that Iran has received no enriched uranium from France despite being a 10-percent shareholder in the European Gaseous Diffusion Uranium Enrichment Consortium (Eurodif).
Tehran and Paris have also signed a deal, under which France is obliged to deliver 50 tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) to Iran â€” another obligation France has failed to meet.
The IAEA is to meet for talks on Iran’s nuclear energy program later on Monday.
An IAEA proposal would require Iran to send most of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and subsequently France for further enrichment and conversion into metal fuel rods.
Based on the draft, Iran would receive a shipment of the nuclear fuel at a later time, while the Tehran research reactor, which produces medical radioisotopes for cancer treatment, is already running out of fuel.
After the powers ignored Tehran’s concerns over the absence of necessary guarantees, Iran decided to domestically enrich uranium to a level of 20 percent.